The democrats had a supermajority on Christmas Eve 2009 when the bill was passed. You are correct that they lost the supermajority soon afterwards and couldn't revote on reconciliation but the Senate version of the bill would never have passed without the supermajority they held in 2009. The were arrogant enough to move forward with a partisan bill that was flawed. If not for John Roberts redefining the meaning of "tax" it would have been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Parts have already been dismantled because of it's flaws.
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Originally Posted by vilger
Edward Kennedy, the 60th Democrat vote in the Senate died in August 2009. Scott Brown, a Republican, who nobody expected to win the special election replaced him in January 2010 thus killing the Democrats' super majority in the Senate. So the Democrats had a super majority for less than a year, and did not have one when Obamacare was signed into law in March 2010. Because they lacked a super majority in the Senate in 2010, the House had to pass the Senate version of the bill that was passed in 2009 rather than going through the normal reconciliation process between the House and Senate versions.
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